Bacon de Czar Launches on a Boat in Berlin

It’s not often you get to witness a network of companies get together for a unique bonding session aboard a boat (unless you’re in Cannes, of course) but this week, Bacon Copenhagen, Henry de Czar and a host of Czar’s European offices held a workshop to launch their new digital venture with Relax, We Are the Good Guys, on the river Spree in Berlin, followed by a launch party at the new office space. Being such a rare and unique occasion, shots was along for the ride.

After some minor logistical setbacks – including a delayed flight for the group travelling from Amsterdam – we finally set sail between the graffiti smattered banks, introducing ourselves over lunch before commencing with some fun icebreaker activities.

With a mix of nationalities on board and directorial talent such as Martin Werner and Jeppe Ronde in attendance, we were instructed to get into order of height before being split into groups and sat at new tables. After an introduction exercise, which involved stating names and one emotion of how you were feeling at the time, the groups were informed that we’d be participating in a creative marketing exercise centred around “the internet of things”, and, considering the fact that staff hadn’t even been briefed about the workshop before now, there was an expected sense of bewilderment and puzzled faces around the room.

Kicking things off, each group was asked to invent a company name that would ultimately become their product. After a few minutes of discussion and brainstorming, the following brands were established: Empty, Just Jazz, RESQ, Moustache and Rose Machine.

Then came the catch and the names were passed between groups, who’d then be challenged to invent a slogan for the various product names. After another brainstorming session, the following taglines emerged: [Empty] I’m Full of it, [Just Jazz] It, [RESQ] Fancy a drink?, [Moustache] For women with balls, and [Rose machine] C’est Pas Clair. 

So with a brand and slogan in possession, groups were assigned a random theme from a selection including retail, energy, safety and transport, then had to develop their product with the respective subject in mind for their app. This involved explaining what the product actually does, visualising how it would appear on your phone or iPad, and suggesting your ideal media publication where it would be promoted.

Finally, the time came to present the resulting ideas, and there were corkers, then some not so impressive, but all managed to conjure up plenty of laughter aboard the boat.

Perhaps the most entertaining was Empty, a condom scanning app, which informs you whether you’ve just caught something unwanted after sexual intercourse. After the all-important scan, a thumb tells you whether you get the green or red light by moving up or down from a neutral position. The group also joked that for the well-hung user, an iPad would be more practical for the test. Men’s Health would be the publication of choice to pick the app up for coverage and would speculate about the app saving the world, it was suggested.

Rose Machine was another cool and useful app presented; a service designed to locate the closest rose dispenser in Cannes, the invention was well received by all groups, naturally and Henry de Czar’s executive producer, Jean Luc, joked: “Fuck! This saved my life.”

Other inventions that came to light were food app Just Jazz, which captures a photo of the food in your fridge and suggests a meal out of the ingredients; RESQ, another form of drink dispenser; and Moustache, an app where women can choose a moustache and hold it up to their face to avoid being raped.

The presentations ended before prizes were presented to members of each group in the form of beer, setting the platform for celebrations to begin. A few hours later, employees regrouped at Bacon de Czar’s new office space where they were greeted by a barbecued feast, alcohol and musical entertainment before moving onto a nearby bar for more of the same.

Voices were lost, glasses emptied and shapes thrown until the early hours of Thursday morning as the sun rose to welcome a beautiful new day in Berlin and see in the first chapter for Bacon de Czar. The new company will be headed up by Stine Hein, executive producer/co-founder; Felix Nielsen, technical director/co-founder; and Caspar Bock, creative director. Next week we’ll have founder and partner at bacon Copenhagen, Kasper Wedendahl, offering insight into the company’s inception, how the launch went and future plans for Bacon de czar.